Welcome to the OCTOBER History Page of
 COC Part-Time Faculty United

College of the Canyons Part-Time Faculty United
Building a better profession, a better institution and better student learning.

The following information includes emails come from several sources (including California adjunct organization listservs).  There are included here for there direct or indirect relevance to the part-time faculty organizing campaign at College of the Canyons.  The names of Part-Time Faculty at COC (excepting the organizing committe) and VVC who authored some of the emails that follow are omitted to preserve their anonimity.

October 22, 2002
The following email of gratitude came from a COC part-time instructor:
:.) 

October 21, 2002
The following email came from a COC part-time instructor:

good work!

D.
COC adjunct

October 20, 2002
The following emails were posted on the California Part-time Faculty Association listserv by Pamela Highet:

How are you folks affording the attorneys' fees for your battle with COC? 
 
How can the members of El Chorro assist you?  An email campaign to the Board, executive team, et cetera?
 
You will have a fascinating story to tell your grandchildren.
 
Burton Fletcher

COC PTFU's response came from Michael Ward:

Hi Burton,
 
It's always good to hear from you!  So far, AFT (at considerable expense) has been taking care of the legal bill for us.  Otherwise, we would have been dead in the water long ago.  I am not sure how "el chorro" and CPFA could help financially - or if they should, since several of the members still see our case as an inter-union squabble (there is nothing further from the truth in our case).  Nevertheless, some pro-CTA members might object.  Thank you for asking.
 
Yes, I will indeed have quite a story for my grandchildren.  I am getting quite a lesson in legal procedure and some very low-brow aspects of higher education.  
 
By the way, thank you for all those great links and articles related to part-timers from the Chronicle and other periodicals; they're great.  I am also amazed with your ability to get pertinent legal data and case law up on the listserv with lightning speed as you do.  Keep up the good work and thank you for your encouragement and support.
 
Michael Ward

. . .and Burton's follow-up reply:

Thanks for the compliments.  I'm amazed by your accomplishments.  Best wishes to your campaign.  
 
Burton

And another from the listserv:

Supposedly respectable institutions will continue to undermine this basic human right unless we continue to refuse to get up out of our seats and go to the back of the bus!

COC PTFU's response came from Michael Ward:

Thank you, Pamela!  We appreciate your support, which continues to buoy us through the storms, as we persist in the fight for part-time faculty choice at COC.  The freedom to choose is such a simple, traditional, and very AMERICAN idea, and it has been awfully discouraging to witness first hand, how supposedly respectable institutions fight to undermine this basic human right.
 
Onward!
 
MIchael Ward

The following is a COC PTFU update:

Things are looking up – the wheels of justice are turning – and we have more good news for part-time faculty at College of the Canyons!  We won an extension of the injunction that keeps COC’s “company union,” the CTA-affiliated COC Faculty Association from taking control of our bargaining rights with the Santa Clarita Community College District.  This is important because it allows the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) the time to make a final determination in our case, something that could come by January, which will take us closer to our much desired election. 

The following update comes from part-time English instructor Beverly Cope (BeverlyCope@aol.com), a member of the COC Part-Time Faculty United Executive Committee, who attended Friday's hearing in Los Angeles County Superior Court, an event that granted us the injunction extension. 

"Dear Group, 

"Just got back from the courthouse where the injunction was granted. The preliminary ruling had been available that morning. It said that Judge Yaffe had decided to extend the injunction until January 10, pending any compelling arguments to the contrary. Although this puts things into the next semester, the judge determined that PERB should be given until after the holiday to complete its work [regarding our appeal]. 

"Mary Dowell, the COC [Santa Clarita Community College] District's attorney argued that she wanted a line included that would guarantee that this was the last injunction extension that would be granted. 

"The PERB countered that, in part, [because] the timing of handing down of the decision depended on the filing of new objections which would come from her or from AFT attorney Larry Rosenzweig. If both parties could guarantee that no further objections would be filed, then he would agree to the inclusion of such language. While our attorney said that it was probably fine with his client, Dowell could not agree that new objections would not be filed. . . 

"The whole session took about fifteen or twenty minutes and the Judge granted the extension without including the language suggested by the school district's attorneys. 

"If you've read the appeal brief [superbly written by AFT attorney Martin Fassler], you know what a STRONG case our attorneys have made for reversing the proposed decision. Robert Thompson, the PERB attorney, has asked the PERB board to move the case up to top priority. Even though they've agreed to do this, we may well have to file for yet another extension of the injunction if PERB can't get to a decision before January 10th. 

"At any rate, this was a very positive turn of events for us and we ought to celebrate . . . [signed] Beverly"

The following email came through to COC Part-Time Faculty United from one of our non-COC supporters, related to the news of our injunction extension (won Friday, October 18, 2002):

Michael,

Hooray for another nail in the CTA coffin.  They're the walking dead as far as ethics/arrogance go, and internment is only a matter of time. Can hardly wait to celebrate the upcoming victory in 2003.

GREAT news for our labor movement.  I just LØVE to hear good news. It transforms my old battle with CTA lost about nine years ago.  Not only did I lose my job on one CTA campus (Pasadena City College) for waging the battle there over lost seniority rights & hiring/firing practices, but out of spite influence was used to smear my name on 2 other surrounding campuses, preventing employment closer to my home.  And in addition, political "arrangements" were made on that CTA
campus to influence the loss of my employment on another non-CTA campus nearby. . .

However, since  one can lose a battle but still win the war  your good news provides hope. . .  Justice deferred is still justice denied. . .  Over the years anyone who has crossed CTA was exterminated & they have created the sickest work
dynamics within departments  witnessed anywhere.

In Solidarity,

C.

October 19, 2002
The following email came through to COC Part-Time Faculty United from one of our non-COC colleagues, Pamela Highet:

Good news, Michael!  We'll keep rooting for you and your colleagues at COC!

Pamela

October 7, 2002
The following email came to COC Part-Time Faculty United from one of our colleagues who teaches at a CC in Southern California:

Michael, 

I finally had time to read the ruling (on my flight to the Glendale PT conference 9/21) and now am finally getting around to responding.  Although I know nothing about labor law, I was appalled at the decision and at the events in general as I have read about them on the listserv.  I hope and assume that your counsel are appealing the decision. 

I was even more outraged when I heard about the layoffs at COC.  Good luck to you and your colleagues and keep up the fight. 

Cliff Liehe

A second email from this same author came through afterward:

Congratulations!  I hadn't heard that good news (perhaps because there are so many listserv emails that I haven't had time to read). 

Cliff Liehe 

The following email came to COC Part-Time Faculty United from one of our colleagues at Long Beach City College who is a former COC adjunct: faculty member

Hi Michael, 

So much commotion going on at COC!  You've truly inspired a lot of people. . . 

Take care, 

M.

October 6, 2002
COC part-timers are OUTRAGED at the scurrilous actions of the COC administration and the COCFA!  DESPITE these actions against us, the court has granted us a reprieve.

Recently, we narrowly dodged a bullet intended to kill part-time faculty choice at College of the Canyons.  As you know, our original Unfair Labor Practice complaint filed with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) received an unfavorable recommendation by an Administrative Law Judge.  The ALJ’s “proposed decision” can become final only if it is not challenged, and we intend to vigorously challenge this proposed decision (please see the COC PTFU President's Message for more information on this issue).  This fight is not an easy one.  In the face of tough opposition, colleagues, know that we will not give up our fight for adjunct faculty rights, and the freedom to choose our own representation at COC!

Meanwhile, Judge Yaffee's of the L. A. County Superior Court has granted us an emergency extension of the injunction that forbids the COC administration and the CTA-affiliated full-time faculty union from representing us, pending a formal hearing in mid-October to extend the original injunction, pending our appeal of the ALJ's proposed decision. 

Despite these developments, the CTA and the administration recently colluded to rid the college of the 3/5 of the part-time faculty that signed pro-AFT cards.  While there is no way for the administration to know who signed these cards, this action sought to eliminate most of our numbers by taking classes away from us in the name of state budget cuts. 

Meanwhile the administration is apparently restoring classes cut from the part-time faculty under the pretext of budget cuts.  This is good news indeed!  It is also more than just coincidence that such activity began following the September 25 Santa Clarita Community College District/ COC Board of Trustees meeting, where in a closed session they met with their lawyers to discuss the Unfair Labor Practice complaint that COC Part-Time Faculty United and AFT filed with PERB.

We are outraged at this latest round of unscrupulous and opportunistic actions of the COC administration in concert with the CTA to hijack the part-time faculty.  It is obvious that these two entities will stop at nothing when it comes to finding ways to seize what they could not earn by a legal vote of the part-timers: the control of adjunct faculty decision-making now and in the future.  If they get their way, we will lose our freedom to choose, and we will lose our voice in matters that concern us at COC.  Moreover, the ramifications of this happening will direly impact adjunct faculty rights to self-determination statewide.  The real issues at COC have to do with freedom of choice, something that remains at the heart of the American values that we cherish, and something the CTA and the COC administration are evidently willing to obstruct. 

Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Donn Ginoza issued his (unexpected) proposed decision in our unfair labor practice complaint against the Santa Clarita Community College District (College of the Canyons).  ALJ Ginoza's "proposed decision" does not support our complaint; for more details, see our "What's New" and September "History" pages.  Much depends on our abilty to secure an extension of the injunction forbidding the full-time faculty union (COCFA) from representing us.  Read AFT attorney Martin Fassler's arguments in support of such an extension at our "Documents Page" - and read COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT President Michael Ward's rebuttal to to COC Vice-president Phil Hartley's recent letter on our "Issues Page." 

This September 11th decision in our case is unfortunate to be sure, especially since it perpetuates a situation whereby COC part-timers are blocked from making our own free choice for union representation.  We collected signed cards for AFT from 3/5 of the adjunct faculty and have worked hard to build a strong part-timer organization.  The nature of the decision itself certainly lends itself to the idea of an appeal, something that appeals to COC part-timers who remain steadfastly opposed to the notion of being forced against their/ our will into the CTA.  Since roughly 1/3 of such rulings are overturned on appeal, this obviously bad ruling may need judicial review. 

The COC September 11th ruling serves only to deny democratic free choice for part-timers.

Famed labor-rights attorney Robert Bezemek calls for the appeal of the September 11th proposed decision:

In response to this bad ALJ decision, Robert Bezemek, California labor attorney best known to part-timers for winning the landmark 1989 Cervisi case granting unemployment benefits to part-time faculty between terms, states:

"I read the [ALJ's] decision, which is an abomination.  I think it can be reversed on appeal, and that it MUST be reversed."  In light of the possibilities for appeal, and recent union-busting tactics by the COC administration, we must remain strong and united, in expectation of a successful appeal.

COC President Van Hook boasts about the district's ability to handle increases in student enrollments:

The September 11, 2002 edition of the Los Angeles Times included an article titled "Enrollment Rising at State's 2-Year Colleges" wherin it was reported:

"Some fast-growing districts said that they can handle the extra students.  College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita expects to serve 13,700 students fall, up about 8% from last year and double the level of six years ago.  In that period, the number of class sections offered has risen from 682 to more than 1,600.  'We've built in a lot of capacity,' said Diane G. Van Hook, the college's superintendant-president."

Who is teaching in all these added "capacity" courses?  Certainly NOT part-timers!  As temporary part-time employees of the Santa Clarita Community College District, we are seen by the administration as an expendable and easily replaceable resource. The administration has recently been encouraging the expansion of full-time faculty overload; a quick examination of the current on-line schedule of classes will reveal many full-timers teaching 10 OR MORE 3-unit courses at COC alone!  This cannot be a good thing for the quality of intruction.  At the neighboring Ventura Community College District, the AFT Local 1828 long ago negotiated a contract that limits full-time overload to two classes only. 

The situation at COC is shameful and unfair.  It would be appropriate indeed for all of us to express our outrage by writing letters to the editor of the Times.  Send them to: Letters to the Editor, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angleles, CA 90012.  They can be faxed to (213) 237-7679.  By email, your letters should go to: letters@latimes.com. 

October 5, 2002
The following email comes from a COC part-timer:

Hi!  I finally heard from [my department chair], and he offered me the same two classes I am now teaching!!  I guess someone is watching over me!!

Keep up all the good work, tho!!  I am 100%  behind you still!!

S.

. . .and the response from COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT President Michael Ward:

Hi S.,

This is wonderful news!  Yes, the administration appears to be backing off its plans to reduce the numbers of part-time faculty, and is setting about returning our canceled classes.  It is also more than just coincidence that such activity began happening following the last SCCCD BOT meeting (the Wednesday before last), where in a closed session they met with their lawyers to discuss the Unfair Labor Practice complaint that COC Part-Time Faculty United and AFT filed with PERB.  I am glad that some administrators have finally found their senses and have realized that the district isn't immune from prosecution for their wrong-doings after all!

Thanks for your continued support, . . .  They're backing off right now, but . . .the fight isn't over by any means.

Thanks again.

Michael Ward 

October 2, 2002
The following email came to COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT from Caroline Blake of the California Part-time Faculty Association:

Michael, 

   You and yours at COC have not been forgotten. Your name came up in the Sunday at the PT State Meeting (AFT PT reps from various locals) at El Camino, my employer.( I believe that group meets at COC around April 2003.) . . . 
   This entire system cannot exist without exploitation. The concept of power without exploitation is foreign to the power structure & they have endless propaganda spins to put on it (such as the thinly veined Dian Hasson emails, posing as a friend).  Never before has there been a labor movement to question the system.  We are forced into lawsuit and appeals to defend ourselves.  My personal experience has shown the corrupt leaders are also hypocrites. They belong in a Grosz drawing out of pre-war Berlin.
   I am looking forward to celebration  after the COC appeal which will leave you & yours sitting in the catbird seat.  I hope the latest issue of ProNews, just out, falls into your hands. Check the last page, lower right corner for Cushing's quote about COC being the Stepford of CCC, etc. It might bring a chuckle. 

Cordially, 
Caroline Blake
VP II, AFT #1399, CPFA